Discusses how political science has shaped educational politics. Examines educational politics' contribution to political science theory-building, highlighting federalism, multiple power centers, race relations, and democratic schooling issues. Explores why educational politics researchers diverge from the new political science paradigm (the…

The Eight-Year Study was a landmark attempt to design, implement, and evaluate democratic secondary schools. Reexamining this 1930s initiative allows us to consider how democratic priorities can transform educational practice, evaluation, and policy analysis. The norms, values, and technologies that currently guide mainstream analysis are poorly…

This article discusses theories about knowledge and schooling and describes democratic classrooms. Students need empowerment to have a voice in curriculum design and governance. Schools that foster student voice must establish conditions for democratic talk in class. Students must be taught to respect others; they cannot be allowed to denigrate…

Criticizes the Reagan and Bush administrations for denying that socioeconomic context must be considered in educational reform. Advances critical multiculturalism as a way of understanding how certain knowledges become legitimated over others under the guise of objectivity and neutrality. Contends that all knowledge is situated knowledge and is…

School-choice plans that segregate students according to background, ability, or aspiration violate the comprehensive ideal of uniting a diverse student population. Whereas choice based on free-market principles seems appealing, closer scrutiny reveals that essential choice provisions hold potentially dire consequences for the fabric of our…

Voucher plans are undemocratic and will perpetuate class distinctions and the fragmentation of society. The choice agenda will particularize loyalties rather than encourage a sense of common loyalties among people. The individual parent will be forced to claw and scramble for the benefit of his/her kid only. We should not dismantle democratic…

Use of insights from the speech communication discipline can strengthen college teaching effectiveness, including abandoning the safety of the lectern and listening carefully to student thoughts, teaching without notes, and exemplifying respect, genuineness, and empathy in the teacher-student relationship. (MSE)

A Foxfire teacher confronts her skepticism of education before interviewing Maxine Greene, author of the book, "The Dialectic of Freedom." Greene, who is optimistic about education and its role in promoting personal freedom, discusses schools in a changing society, educational reform, critical thinking, the importance of the arts in…

In 1990, a new ultraconservative religious group in San Diego County began an all-out war on public education. This article describes mainstream efforts to combat curriculum challenges and "stealth" board election tactics devised by Citizens for Excellence in Education and other fundamentalist factions. Meanwhile, the new CEE-majority…

Describes the changes that have taken place in librarianship in the former Soviet Union. The discussion covers the advantages and disadvantages of centralized planning, the reorganization of library systems in Russia and the Ukraine, the effects of democratization on organization and librarian attitudes, and the remnants of Russification in…

The Association of American Colleges and Universities' national initiative for college curriculum and faculty development, entitled "American Commitments: Diversity, Democracy, and Liberal Learning," is described; and a panel discussion of two central themes, which concern cultural pluralism in higher education, is summarized. (MSE)

Universities can undergird democracy by promoting and defending truth, guarding against despotism, and providing opportunity. To avoid perpetuating the effects of ascription, truly democratic universities must select among students and distribute benefits in ways that are meritocratic but weaken the transmission of status and wealth into which…

Discusses people's need for facility in calculating and using mathematical techniques to participate in the understanding and transformation of their society. Topics discussed include the relationship between democracy and education; democratic competence; democracy in a technological society; the role of mathematics in society; and reflective…

Discusses the education for citizenship program that is part of the National Curriculum in Great Britain. Maintains that citizenship can be interpreted in a minimal, or formal way or in a maximal, or more personal fashion. Calls for a national debate to define more clearly the meaning of citizenship. (CFR)

Uses qualitative research methods (interviews, classroom observations, and document analysis) to determine whether a rural midwestern high school's restructuring process serves particular values and silences others. Findings showed lack of consideration for social power and student identity issues. Basic restructuring elements (outcome-based…